Young Adventurers Launch 900-Mile Canoe Expedition To The Arctic

Thursday, 13 June 2013

On Monday a team of six young explorers launched an epic summer paddling expedition that will see them covering more than 900 miles (1448 km) as they travel by canoe to the Arctic Ocean. Their expedition will carry them across three Canadian Provinces on this adventure as they also collect water samples to be examined by research scientists once the journey is complete.

The expedition is called the Tri-Province Arctic Canoe Expedition and it got underway from Black Lake, located in Saskatchewan following a three-mile portage that included the team shuttling 700 pounds (318 kg) of gear to their starting point. The route will take them through some extremely remote areas as they travel along the Dubawnt, Morse and Armark Rivers on their way to the Queen Maude Gulf in the Arctic. Some of their challenges will include crossing some early portage portholes on their way out of Black Lake, navigating through Lake Dubwnt, which is often frozen even in the winter, and an upstream slog on the Morse River that has never been attempted before.

The six young men on this journey include Kyle Terry, Ben Woods, Henry Cordeal, Jess Hernandez, Chris Martella and Andrew Hubb, all of which are between the ages of 22 and 26. They expect their journey to take roughly 70-days to complete, during which they'll be passing through some seldom visited sections of the Canadian wilderness. While traveling in the Queen Maud Gulf Migratory Bird Sanctuary, they hope to document some of the wildlife that they see along the way. Additionally, the water samples they take at various stages of the trip will be used in a research project at the University of Alaska to study the water cycle by creating a map of the patterns of isotopes found in the water in different locations. The hope is that it will allow researchers to study the processes that are affecting the water in unique parts of the world.

The boys have now been out on the water for four days and they have not posted any updates to their social media outlets just yet. Hopefully that will change as they get settled into the routine of the journey. You can follow them on both Facebook and Twitter if you would like to keep up with their adventure. You can also read about what they packed for a 70-day backwoods adventure in this article found at the National Geographic Adventure Blog.